Juventus on Sunday played out a thrilling 3-3 draw with Atalanta BC in their first match since being slapped with a massive points deduction for illicit transfer activity, AS Roma taking their place in Serie A’s UEFA Champions League positions following a 2-0 win at Spezia.
Italy’s biggest club were rocked on Friday last week by the Italian Football Federation’s decision to dock them 15 points after ruling they had managed capital gains from transfers to artificially benefit their accounts.
That decision, which leaves them ninth in Italy’s top flight on 23 points, drew howls of disapproval from Juve fans at the Allianz Stadium before a hugely entertaining encounter, and was blasted as “unjust and unequal” by chief executive Maurizio Scanavino pre-match.
Photo: AP
However, the team showed fight to twice come back from going behind to Ademola Lookman goals to draw an exciting encounter, with Danilo’s drive midway through the second half eventually earning his team a point.
Juve are 14 points from the Champions League positions, a bad situation for a club whose last accounts were nearly 240 million euros (US$260 million) in the red.
“I think we’d need 71 points to get into the Champions League... We need to look at the reality of how things are,” Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri said.
Juventus had been leading at halftime when Angel di Maria’s 25th-minute penalty canceled out Lookman’s early opener, before Arkadiusz Milik’s superb volley nine minutes later.
However, the hosts were rocked again when Nigeria forward Lookman sent Joakim Maehle through to level seconds after halftime.
Lookman then thumped home a perfect header in the 53rd minute to take his tally in his debut Serie A season to 11, before Danilo made sure both teams would share the spoils and leave Atalanta in fifth place.
“We’re in a good position now, but there’s a long way to go ... this is a very strange season and we don’t know what will happen,” Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini said.
Roma are fourth, level on 37 points with Inter, who were hosting Empoli yesterday, and just one behind second-placed AC Milan ahead of the champions’ trip today to take on SS Lazio, who would move above Jose Mourinho’s side into the top four with a win.
They came away with the three points at Spezia despite the absence of Italy international Nicolo Zaniolo, who refused to be picked and was criticized by the club’s general manager Tiago Pinto.
Pinto said of Zaniolo that “personal interests have been put ahead of the collective good” with over a week remaining in the winter transfer window, adding that “it’s not the first time this has happened.”
Mourinho then confirmed that the 23-year-old is looking for a way out of the club.
“He wants to leave, but that doesn’t mean he will. The offers currently on the table aren’t worthy of either him or the club,” Mourinho told DAZN.
US Sassuolo sit just above the relegation zone following their 1-1 draw at AC Monza, while UC Sampdoria fell to a 1-0 home defeat to Udinese.
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